Generally, an automotive air conditioner automatically determines the temperature, airflow level, etc., of conditioned air discharged from selected air outlets by reference to various parameters such as temperature setting, outside temperature, inside temperature, and solar radiation. However, human sensitivity to temperature differs from one person to another (some are sensitive to heat, while others are sensitive to cold). As a result, the automatically determined temperature, airflow level, etc., of the conditioned air may not be optimum for every occupant. In that case, an occupant may adjust the air conditioner to raise or lower the temperature setting or to increase or reduce the airflow level by operating the operation panel. In view of this, an air conditioner has been developed that incorporates a learning control that corrects a relational equation for determining the temperature, airflow level, etc., of conditioned air by using relevant parameters when an occupant has changed the setting such as the temperature setting or airflow level by operating an operation panel (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-293204).
However, it should, be noted that a vehicle occupant does not always change the setting of the air conditioner because his or her sensitivity to temperature differs from others. The occupant may change the setting due to external environmental factors. For example, if the occupant has just exercised before driving the vehicle, the occupant may want to set the temperature lower than normal. Further, when the vehicle approaches a place where traffic congestion always occurs, the occupant may set the air conditioner to an inside air recirculation mode in order to prevent exhaust gas from flowing into the inside of the vehicle. However, the air conditioner disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-293204 cannot distinguish between the case where the occupant has changed the setting of the air conditioner because of or external environmental factors a situation in which the occupant has changed the setting because the set value automatically adjusted by the air conditioner did not match the occupant's sensitivity to temperature.
On the other hand, an automotive climate control system has been developed wherein provisions have been made in order to discriminate between temperature control learning and other learning by adding data indicating the current location of a vehicle to the learned data (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-62431).
However, the automotive climate control system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-62431 is the type that determines whether the temperature control learning is to be performed or not by referring to the date and time and the location of the vehicle, and cannot address situations where the air conditioner setting has been changed for reasons other than the date and time or the location of the vehicle, for example, when an occupant has lowered the temperature setting because he or she has been doing physical exercise. Furthermore, the automotive climate control system does not optimize the air conditioning temperature, etc., to suit specific situations such as described above.
If the air conditioning temperature, etc., are to be optimized to suit specific situations, each specific situation must be accurately identified. For this purpose, in the case of the automotive climate control system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-62431, for example, it is necessary to determine the range of the date and time and the range of the location of the vehicle where the temperature control learning is to be performed. However, it has been difficult to set such ranges in advance because the range of the date and time and the range of the location of the vehicle vary depending on the vehicle driver.